On Agreeing to the Amendment: Amendment 11 to H R 4739

This was a vote to approve or reject amendment H.Amdt. 727 (101st)
(Ronald Dellums)
to H.R. 4739 (101st). The title of the amendment is H.Amdt. 727 (Dellums) to H.R. 4739 (101st): Amendment sought to reduce funding for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) from $2.9 billion to $1.5 billion; restrict the use of SDI funds to basic research; and terminate the Strategic Defense Initiative O.

Vote Details

The Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings, except when such vote would be decisive.” In practice, this means the Speaker of the House rarely votes and only does so when it is politically useful. When the Speaker declines to vote, he or she is simply omitted from the roll call by the House Clerk. (See House Rules, Rule I(7).)

“Aye” and “Yea” mean the same thing, and so do “No” and “Nay”. Congress uses different words in different sorts of votes.

The U.S. Constitution says that bills should be decided on by the “yeas and nays” (Article I, Section 7). Congress takes this literally and uses “yea” and “nay” when voting on the final passage of bills.

All Senate votes use these words. But the House of Representatives uses “Aye” and “No” in other sorts of votes.